Heat Lightning
by AllMonstersRHuman
Summary: Having been the sole female occupant at Wheaton Hall's state home for boys all her life she's seen all types come and go but never one quite like this before.
1. The Reed Phantom

**Author's Note:**_ I know I shouldn't be starting another story but...shit happens. Can't promise regular updates, but they may happen. _

* * *

Mellie rested her head on the frame of the car door, closing her eyes against the warm summer breeze rushing past her face through the open window. She loved these trips, a brief escape from the home. Be it a simple run to the market or official social worker business she was always grateful Jessie allowed her to come along.

"Jess I've heard real awful things at school from the kids who live near the Reed farm." she sighed, leaning her head back against the headrest and away from the wind tunnel.

"Like what? You better throw that nasty thing out before we get there and the sheriff catches sight of you." she warned, looking disapprovingly at the lit cancer stick in Mellie's hand.

"I don't like to spread gossip." she began, pausing to take a long drag. "But they say he's retarded, some say deformed physically instead of mentally. They talk about him like he's Dr. Frankenstein's monster. They think they know it all and then some." she scowled around a stream of exhaled smoke, flicking an ash out the window.

"And what do you think?" Jessie asked, snatching the cigarette from her hand to take a quick forbidden inhale before sending it sailing out the window as the car approached the driveway leading to the Reed farm.

"I think I'll keep an open mind and a shut mouth until I meet the kid myself. And I think you're gonna pitch a fit when I say I'm not letting you go in there without me." she stated, observing the cop cars and nosy neighbors circled around the front lawn.

Mellie was up and out of the car before Jessie could argue. With a deep sigh the older woman followed the stubborn sundress clad girl, knowing arguing with anything she wanted was a waste of breath. After a brief rundown of what they already knew along with mentions of the boy being a dirty family secret from Sheriff Branum they proceeded to enter the notorious Reed farmhouse. Until the Sheriff realized Mellie intended to follow them inside.

"I won't spook him, I'll stay quiet and out of the way. You wanna catch a fish you gotta use bate. What better bate you got to lure a boy out than a pretty girl Sheriff?" she argued when ordered to wait outside.

"She's got a point." Deputy Duncan hollered from his chicken shit place behind his open cruiser door.

"I tell ya to get out and ya get out. You hear?" the Sheriff finally relented when she persisted.

The inside looked like a typical farm house, not the house of horrors kids at school had painted it out to be. The only thing out of the ordinary being an unusual array of lightning rods perched on the roof.

"Where's he at?" Jessie whispered, peeking around corners here and there as the Sheriff lead them through the house towards the kitchen.

Mellie sidestepped a broken coffee mug, a pang of sorrow shooting through her as she realized she was most likely standing in the spot where Mr. Reed had died.

"There." Branum replied, pointing towards an cellar door in the wooden floor.

* * *

He could hear them up there moving around again. Feel the fear and anxiety coming off almost all of them. There was even some faint hatred wafting from somewhere outside. But he knew people feared the unknown, hated what they couldn't understand.

As the floorboards creaked from above he caught wind of two new beings, one with fear and sympathy warring inside it. Another brimming with excitement and curiosity, a beam of sunshine in what had been a day filled with gloomy clouds of other people's negative emotions.

That is until that particular set of footsteps reached the kitchen and a strong wave of grief overcame the creature above. Just as quickly hope and optimism replaced those emotions in the person as the door to his sanctuary was opened and the fear and anxiety from outside became his own.

* * *

With shouts of bringing someone to talk to him from the Sheriff and soft words from Jessie being called out she figured she would hang back unless they needed her, clearing the steps only as Jessie inquired about turning on a light. As she was moving closer to inspect a mechanical contraption on a nearby desk she heard it. A meek voice declaring it's owner's lack of fear.

As she peered through the spaces of a bookcase separating what must have been a bedroom from the work-space she was standing in she got her first glimpse of the Reed phantom. Just a vague gray outline in the musty darkness of the basement where skin wasn't covered by clothing. The name he gave Jessie made Mellie snort at it's irony before she clamped a hand over her mouth as his head darted in her direction at the sound.

His muttered recount of his grandfather's death made her emerge from her hiding spot, rounding the bookcase to peek around Sheriff Branum's shoulder. When Jessie reassured him that no one would do him harm and requested his hand she could see him hesitate as though he were afraid of pain, keeping his limb restrained just beyond the edge of light streaking in through the cellar windows. Then she saw just how ironic that cruel nickname really was. He was white as the driven snow.

Her gasp slipped out without her even realizing it, making her turn red with embarrassment when his equally crimson eyes fell on her. Until she mentally compared him to an adorable pet albino mouse she had when she was a little girl he looked as though he was going to shrink back into the darkness at her surprised noise.

"So what do people who aren't assholes call you?" she inquired as he rose from the bed and let Jessie's hand slip from his.

He looked confused at her use of profanity before he replied with his birth given name. As he spoke it her eyes focused on his slightly full lips, the only part of his exposed skin with any kind of pigment. They were peachy compared to the rest of his alabaster complexion. She wondered fleetingly how soft those pink lips were before she let his name roll off her tongue and her eyes wander elsewhere. Away from the creamy expanse of farm work toned chest his tank top showed off, to the rows upon rows of books lining his walls.

Rays of light filtered in through a ground level window, illuminating dust particles in the air and making the girl's box yellow hair shine as she moved around the room, her threadbare faded flower dotted dress shifting as she moved. As much as regular boys his age would have been staring at the curves the thin material held he was captivated by the hair hanging about her shoulders, down her back, falling in her face. It was everywhere and it was nothing like he'd ever seen before, his grandparents having curly gray hair for as long as he could remember. It didn't help that she played with it, running her fingers through it, twisting a piece around her finger as her mind wandered elsewhere.

Until her voice cut through the silence, it's slightly raspy tenor making the name he preferred sound drawn out and sweet.

"Jeremy I have to admit I am jealous of your collection here, ya see the library at the boys home is just about as big as the two books I have stashed away under my bed." she trailed off, caressing the spine of various volumes here and there as she walked the length of each wall and browsed.

Her crystal eyes held his near violet ones a moment before she continued on, humming lightly as she looked and he looked as well. Purely, equally curious. She'd rather be examining him but that wouldn't do, she couldn't act like that, wouldn't treat him like that.

"Mellie don't be rude!" Jessie scolded her after the Sheriff was sent to fetch food and she was caught reaching for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on a top shelf.

"I'm sorry, do you mind?" she asked, retracting her hand as though the book was going to scald her if she touched it without his permission.

Jeremy shook his head quickly, eyes innocently taking in more tan skin as the weathered lace edge of her cotton dress inched a bit higher when she reached for her selection again.

He was a bit taken aback when she strode across the room and flopped down on his bed comfortably, cracking the tome open carefully to it's first page. The scent of cigarettes and sweet dried flowers or grass hit him as she passed, making him think of the slim sticks his grandma used to smoke and the vases of fresh cut wildflowers she would set on the kitchen table.

Mellie thought nothing of it when the strange boy sat down on the edge of his bed beside her legs, already sucked into the pages in front of her face. She heard mutterings from Jessie along with a question directed to the boy. Only the sound of a sniffle made her unbury her nose.

"Where are your manners." Jessie hissed as Mellie watched tears run down the boy's face.

"Must have gone right out the window along with my cigarette." she grumbled as she closed the book and set it aside on his nightstand already piled high with others like it.

"I'm..I'm sorry about your grandpa." she murmured, her hand hesitating an inch above his shoulder after she sat up to try her hand at consoling someone.

"I've never lost anyone myself because my parents dumped me on the state home doorstep, but I bet it hurts horribly." she added, grimacing when she felt his frame shake harder under her palm.

She was aspiring to be a social worker like Jessie after she graduated high school that year and so far she was shit at making people feel better. After a silent plea for help that involved her making desperate noiseless faces at Jessie, what the boy had said about his grandparents telling him people would come to take him away one day while she was in a Shakespearian fog came to her.

"I hope you're not worked up over moving to the boys home. I mean I've lived there all my life and I turned out alright…kind of." she offered, smiling when she at least succeeded in making his tremors stop.

"But you're a girl." he puzzled quietly, looking at her after he dried his tears on the corner of his flannel shirt.

"Yeah last time I checked." she laughed, maneuvering her legs around so she could sit up next to him.

"The state officials made and exception for me since I've been there pretty much since birth and only cause minimal problems." she explained, swinging her cracked and aged western boots back and fourth.

"You call that fire at school minimal?" Jessie scoffed, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at Mellie.

"Jessie don't start again I told you I didn't do it." she huffed, mirroring Jessie's cross armed pose.

Mellie jumped not because Jeremy lightly placed his rather large hand around her wrist but because of the intense tingling sensation she got when he did so. As though the entire area where their skin met had fallen asleep.

"She didn't do it." he agreed softly as he lifted his palm from her flesh, looking from her confused face to Jessie's slightly worried one.

Jessie loved the idea of Mellie making an actual friend, a moral male to be her ally in the never ending battle she faced from being the sole female occupant at Wheaton Hall. But if he could be so easily swayed in Mellie's favor she worried about how strong an influence she might have over him.

"Well aren't you lucky, you're not missing out on anything." Mellie assured him when the subject of him having never attended school was breached.

When he demonstrated his knowledge of Moby Dick she immediately chose a page from the book she'd gone back to reading when his lunch had arrived. Her jaw just about dropped to the floor when he recited it word for word with beautiful pronunciation.

She was just thinking how she could listen to that voice read to her until it went hoarse when Jeremy let out a small quiet laugh and the Sheriff announced it was time for their departure. The girl's thoughts of never wanting to leave his basement and the slight dread that overtook her made Jeremy's confidence in her reassurance about his new home-to-be falter. And as he packed what he could in a suitcase he wondered what made her so strongly long to stay in the home of a stranger rather than the place she'd lived all her life.


	2. Cigarettes and Sing Alongs

**Author's note:** _If there's any Fatal Formula readers out there reading this I apologize. And now you know how the Feral readers feel. I'll be back to Mac once Jeremy is out of my mind. (Jeremy has had to zap him quite a few times to keep the little shit out)_

* * *

"I wouldn't mind nagging one of the deputies into hauling them upstairs if you wanted to bring a few books along." Mellie offered once he was finished changing into his Sunday best and she was allowed back into the cellar.

With a small smile and a slight nod he watched as she set to speed reading the titles on the shelves, stacking them into piles.

"Aren't there any in particular that you wanna bring?" she asked once she realized how rude she was being thanks to a meaningful throat clear from Jessie.

"I know them all." he replied with a shrug, truly just wanting her to pick what she wanted.

With a small mountain piled at the foot of the stairs Mellie set out to find her mules and do a far better job than Branum of clearing the curious crowd outside in preparation for the shy boy's departure. After all the old man's voice box was nothing compared to her set of pipes and she'd perfected the art or screaming her lungs out thanks to years of dealing with pesky delinquent boys.

"You're kidding me right? Back beyond the cars isn't good enough these people shouldn't even be here." she scoffed before ordering a couple nearby loitering deputies to start hauling books into Jessie's trunk like she was a federal marshal.

"Go on home you slack jawed yokels, aint nothin' to see here!" she bellowed, making shooing motions with her hands.

When they collectively ignored her she decided to take them on one by one, starting first with the neighbor boys perched on the farm's fences.

"Get moving, don't you have some sheep that need fucking?" she sneered, resorting to pushing them off the fence ass backwards when they called her an orphan whore.

"You want more?" she growled when they dusted themselves off and started advancing on the fence, scooping up a handful of dirt and rocks to chuck at them.

Quite a few well aimed stones later they were running home to tattle on her and lick their wounds. Mellie kept a few rocks in hand, just in case the adults didn't listen to reason and she had to resort to blowing out their windshields.

"I know it's Sunday but don't ya'll have anything better to do than wait around here to gawk at a poor boy who just lost the only family he has left?" she asked as she approached the group huddled around the taillights of their cars.

When mutters and whispers about the hussy who lives in a house of boys and set fire to the high school library were heard she used what she knew would get them by the balls, their precious children.

"Go home to your own kids and let this one alone or I'll give your sons every disease I've got and I'll teach your daughters how to spread their legs for easy money." she threatened, slipping the strap the her already thin cotton dress down her shoulder and dragging the hem of her dress up her thigh for added effect.

Disgusted faces and a couple women covering their husband's eyes met her lewd show and eventually most all of them got in their cars as she continued to push down the other strap next, gravel and dirt spitting up at her as they departed. Threaten bible thumpers with sex and they'll go running for the hills.

As she made her way towards the house and pushed the straps to her dress back up into place she caught the Sheriff looking at her with a hint of pride though he was shaking his head.

"What? Worked didn't it? It's not like my reputation can get any worse." she threw over her shoulder as she passed and the last load of books was deposited into the now heavily sagging back end of the car.

* * *

Jeremy had been downstairs quietly finishing his sandwich as he sat back and figuratively watched the show going on outside. He could faintly hear the girl called Mellie screaming up above but the array of emotions she was kicking up like a dust storm were much stronger. He was surprised at the amount of fear she put in the people, and how much hatred was directed at her for robbing them of a free show.

Even more surprising was how much hatred was packed inside that little girl. Hatred for something else fueled her anger along with her rage at the people wanting to look at him for sport.

A strong wave of something he'd read about emitted from up above, lust. And pure horror. Jeremy was sorely tempted to see what was going on outside before the strange new emotion faded away along with the sound of a few cars.

* * *

"Will this part always feel so shitty or will it get easier with time?" She asked Jessie, turning away from the cellar entrance once more, worrying the material to her dress in between her fingers.

"It never get's easier." she replied softly. "You can only hope they make some friends and that a good foster family opens up one day." she confessed with a shrug, knowing well the feeling weighing heavily on Mellie's shoulders.

"He's different though Jess. He's so innocent and kind. They're gonna rip him to shreds the first-" Mellie was cut off by the sound of footsteps on the stairs below, Jessie's bulged eyes and silent finger held to her lips assisting in ending the concern she was voicing.

She watched as he emerged with dark sunglasses covering his sensitive eyes, making it only a foot away before turning back to look at the stairs behind him. As he took a few more steps and looked back a second time she realized she'd be in a very similar position in a couple months, only having nowhere to go once she was ripped from the only home she knew. Mellie pushed such thoughts away while she watched Jeremy take in the sight of his grandparent's kitchen one last time before taking a deep breath and carrying on.

A fedora was added to his smooth head in hopes of shading his vulnerable orbs further from the strong rays shining down outside. The front porch was where their journey momentarily halted. Though she'd succeeded in pushing the vultures back a line of cars could be seen at the end of the long driveway along the side of the country road.

At his hesitation she came up beside him, sliding her hand along the sleeve of his suit until she felt the skin of his wrist, until her fingertips grazed his palm and she could wrap her small hand around his.

"It's okay, you don't need to be afraid." she almost whispered, not keen on the nearby deputies seeing the softer side of her as she squeezed his hand reassuringly.

"You're afraid." he shot back, the strongest she'd heard his voice so far, almost accusing in tone as he turned his head away from the far off spectators to look at her.

"You're afraid for me." he continued, swallowing hard to push back his own explosive emotions as guilt washed over her and confirmed his accusation.

"I won't be able to protect you from all of what's out there but I'll try." she offered, allowing him to enjoy the experience of her touch a few seconds longer before the strange tingling in her hand grew to be too much and she slipped her hand from his.

Jeremy followed her to the car Jessie was already seated behind the wheel in, sirens and communication radios to the nearby cruisers screeching as he passed making Mellie mouth off about shotty equipment and budget cuts before she threw herself into the passenger seat. When she looked back to find him peering into the car with a bit of uncertainty, jumping back a little when he pressed a button and the rear window began to go down, it hit her just how sheltered and in a way, ignorant to the world he really was.

"Oh my god I can not wait to show you…everything." she laughed as the sheriff herded the window fascinated boy into the car and passed his suitcase along into his lap before closing him in with a slam of the door.

As they passed the row of onlookers Mellie let show the manners countless years at the boys home had gained her, making sure to put extra twang into her obscenities and extra oomph into the fingers she kept raised.

"They wanted somthin' to look at so I gave it to them." she replied with a wave of her hand when Jessie reprimanded her for having a mouth fit for a sailor.

When she switched on the radio a few notes to the tune slipped out before screeches and static filled the car, making her scramble to turn the volume down and then off completely.

"Must be something wrong with the radio signals today." she theorized, removing her boots from the dash to retrieve her hidden pack of cigarettes from their glove box hiding place.

"Good thing I know that one by heart." she grinned as she exhaled her first puff of smoke, bending forward to retrieve a discarded hairbrush from Jessie's messy car floor. "Lets go girls." she breathily purred into her makeshift microphone at Jessie, doing her best impression of miss Twain.

"I'm going out tonight-I'm feelin' alright Gonna let it all hang out. Wanna make some noise-really raise my voice. Yeah, I wanna scream and shout!" she sang, mumbling through the last verse past words she forgot as she danced lewdly in her seat and put on a show while Jessie sung along here and there.

Oh, oh, oh, go totally crazy-forget I'm a lady. Men's shirts-short skirts. Oh, oh, oh, really go wild-yeah, doin' it in style. Oh, oh, oh, get in the action-feel the attraction. Color my hair-do what I dare." she continued, twirling a strand of her box colored blonde hair during the last line, unconcerned about embarrassing herself with shower grade singing in front of a stranger.

Though it was obviously off pitch Jeremy was mesmerized by her singing, having only been treated to nursery rhymes when he was little and faint humming here and there while his grandmother did housework. Thanks to televisions and radios not working around him Mellie's version of Man! I Feel Like a Woman sounded like a grand symphony to him.

"Oh, oh, oh, I wanna be free-yeah, to feel the way I feel. Man! I feel like a woman!" she concluded, breaking off into laughter at her own horrible rendition of the country song.

When clapping came from behind her she took a bow, turning around in her seat to look at him.

"You smoke?" she asked, extending the pack she'd squirreled away in her bra, the only hiding spot the dress afforded.

Jeremy didn't have time to answer before Jessie was yelling about seatbelts and how sitting backwards was going to get them pulled over.

"Here, hold this for me." she huffed, handing the filtered end of her smoke to him while she scaled the middle console and began climbing into the back seat.

"Mellie you're mooning the whole world!" Jessie squawked, taking one hand off the steering wheel to yank down the edge of her dress as Mellie maneuvered herself between the front seats into the space allotted in between Jeremy and his suitcase.

Once she was settled in she looked over to find him staring at her cigarette, turning it to look at it from all angles.

"Take it you're not a smoker then huh Reed." she stated, moving to take it back from where it was precariously held between his fingers.

"Don't you peer pressure him!" came a stern yell from the front, making Mellie turn back to defend herself.

"I wasn't pressuring him. I just offered him one incase he did. Isn't that the polite thing to do Jessie? Since I need to work on my rude behavior so badly Jessie?" she argued, mocking the older woman's earlier words.

A cough made them both cease, and a laugh come from the younger girl as smoke poured from the boy's mouth. His scrunched up face is what made her really cackle as she relieved him of the smoking stick and patted him on the back while he doubled over to cough some more.

"These are a little strong for virgin lungs there buddy." she snickered once he was upright and breathing regularly again, albeit a little green tinting his ashy coloring.

"Why do you do that?" he inquired while wiping tears from behind his shades, pointing towards the lucky hanging from between her lips as she moved his travel bag into the front seat and scooted over to the window to ash.

"I guess I started when I was fourteen cause I thought it looked cool. Then I was hooked. Stress relief is a bullshit excuse. I don't know, just cause I'm an idiot I guess." she rambled, shrugging her sun burnt shoulders at him as she took another drag and blew her smoke out the window.

"So I take it you've never been into town before either?" she asked when she found his nose practically pressed to the window while they rolled down main street past law offices, Bill's hardware and many other shops.

With a shake of his head he set her off, a flurry of explanations coming out a mile a minute for every place they passed.

"And that place on the corner, Socs, is where I work waiting tables. Their food pretty much sucks but their fries are alright and they're the only restaurant in town so people don't really have a choice but to go there." she explained, scooting back next to him once her cigarette was thrown out so she could point out various places.

"On Tuesdays the Plaza plays old horror movies half price, maybe I'll take you one week when I don't have to work after school." she offered, jumping to the next place of business she wanted to talk about before he had time to accept her offer.

Jeremy noticed as the places passing by outside the window turned from storefronts to residential streets to stretches of farm land again, her demeanor darkened. Mellie's boot that wasn't situated on the middle hump began tapping, her fingers picking away at her cuticles out of nervous habit, her body slouching down in the seat as though she wanted to melt and become part of the leather.

"Welcome to Wheaton hall." she sighed, looking up at him through her dark lashes with pity in her blue eyes when she felt the car make it's final left turn along the dead end muddy road that lead to her home.


End file.
